Sweet Nothing
by piratesmiley
Summary: "Beca, in a store where there is no plaid and every shoe has a heel? What a hilarious, completely impossible thought." Beca and Jesse run into each other in a strange place. Beca/Jesse one shot.


It was Chloe's fault that she was here. As a rule, Beca desperately avoided malls, but Chloe had insisted that the Bellas take a Saturday to ride into town and bond, apparently through shopping. Some of the girls had been smart enough to offer up excuses. Beca had been one of those people, but Chloe didn't take her reasons ("I'm allergic to consumerism, my genital warts are flaring up, also I have a term paper?") seriously.

"Oh come on, Beca. It's not going to _kill_ you."

And with that, Chloe, Beca, Amy, Stacie, and Lily found themselves in the middle of a massive Forever 21, most of them regretting their life choices. Chloe, however, was ecstatic that she was getting some girl time. She let out a shriek of happiness every time she found something "cute," which was not only annoying but also eardrum-shattering.

For a while, it was decent. As the girls dispersed, Beca accompanied Amy as she shopped, not really touching anything herself. Chloe noticed pretty quickly and after chiding her returned with an armful of clothes, most of them in colors Beca didn't know existed, let alone would consider wearing on her body. It only took a moment after she was shoved into a dressing room that she would probably never wear any of these things; but Chloe was muttering threats under her breath and standing right outside the door with a razor sharp gold card that Beca assumed she would be shanked with if she tried to escape.

The rest of the girls trickled in after a few minutes, at which point Chloe started to loudly complain that Beca wasn't showing the group everything she was trying on. Beca hadn't even realized that was a thing (_is that why shopping always takes so long?_ She wondered) but flatly refused when she put on the next…garment.

Peach-colored, scoop-necked, and simultaneously too long to be a shirt and too short to be a dress. "Chloe, seriously, I'm not coming out there with this thing on."

"Why? I bet it's aca-adorable!"

Beca poked her head out. "It's _so_ short."

"Just show us." The girls nodded behind Chloe, urging her to show them the damage.

Beca groaned, rolled her eyes, and opened the door wider so they could see.

"_Wow_," is all Fat Amy could say.

The thing barely covered her ass or grazed the top of her thighs. Even Stacie looked a little shocked by it.

"Are you _sure_ this is a dress?" Beca asked, feeling ridiculous.

"Actually it's a shirt, but I figured you're so short you could pull it off as a dress!" Chloe said with a genuine smile.

Beca glared at her.

"Seriously, she's giving away all the goods for free," Stacie said. "And that's coming from me."

Chloe just nodded seriously. "I'm just saying, we could get you a boyfriend if you wore that."

Beca was about to retort, but she was stopped short by a familiar singing voice ungracefully piercing the quiet hum of the store. Her eyes went wide just as the other Bellas were beginning to realize who it was.

_Oh god, no_.

It wasn't that she didn't want to see him. It was that she didn't want him to see _her_. Like this. In a tiny non-dress. Shopping with a bunch of girls.

She'd lose her street cred.

"Is that Jesse?" Lilly finally asked.

Beca just sunk back into her dressing room, leaving only her head out.

He was her best friend. Yes, their almost-kiss was awkward. But somehow, it was like that was the awkward ceiling, and they broke through it. Now, they were just solidly best friends.

Or at least that's what she told herself.

Their movications had picked up in frequency, although with some trepidation so as not to repeat the awkwardness of the first time. She found herself spending more and more time in his and Benji's room, even if there was no movie scheduled. She'd often find him at her spot on the quad, reading a textbook or mindlessly messing around on his phone, waiting for her to show up and banter with him. The radio station started to be her favorite place to be, because they got unfettered time to goof off among the CD stacks.

So she'd love to see him, really. Just not like this.

Anyway, moments after he started singing the sound was muffled and she heard a girl's voice spit out, "Jesus Christ, Jesse!"

She internally raised an eyebrow. Jesse? With a girl? She ignored the weird feeling that bubbled up in the pit of her stomach.

"Just wait here while I try this on, okay?" Beca heard the girl say, and then saw a thin girl with brown curly hair enter the bank of dressing rooms. All of the girls pretended not to notice, looking around the room, pretending to text, picking imaginary lint off of their outfits.

The girl, however, seemed to notice them. "Hey," she said, "You guys go to Barden?" She pointed at Chloe's "Barden A Capella" T-shirt, the back of which advertised last year's bikini car wash fundraiser.

Chloe smiled. "Yeah, we're Barden Bellas."

"My brother's a Treblemaker." She hooked her thumb back to the store floor.

The weird feeling, probably indigestion, or a heart murmur or something, instantly subsided as Beca realized who the girl was.

"You're Christina? I'm Beca."

"Oh! Right!" Christina gasped. She ignored the looks she was getting from the other Bellas as Christina grabbed her and forcefully pulled her into a hug. "You're Jesse's friend!"

"Uh. Yeah," Beca said, a little overwhelmed.

"You're the one that answered his phone that one time, right?"

Fat Amy coughed exuberantly, hoping for an explanation.

It was a simple accident, really. Jesse so rarely allowed them to pause during movication, but Casablanca was apparently pretty long and he needed to pee. While he was in the bathroom, his phone started to ring. Evidently, he could hear it from in there, because he yelled, "Answer it, Bec?"

She was taken aback for a moment, but did as she was asked, albeit awkwardly and without any finesse. "Uh, Jesse's phone?"

"Hi, Jesse's phone. This is Christina, Jesse's favorite and only sister. Is Jesse around?"

"He's in the bathroom." Feeling especially awkward, she decided to introduce herself. "I'm Beca. I'm, uh, a friend. Of Jesse's."

"Right," Christina cooed, as though she didn't fully believe it. But she didn't press it. Instead, she quipped, "Want to hear an embarrassing story from Jesse's childhood?"

Just then Jesse came back into the room. Beca grinned devilishly at him, and then said, faux-seriously, "Yes, I would love to hear any embarrassing stories you have about Jesse's childhood." And with that, he snatched the phone away from her.

"Hey Chris. […] Yes, I really appreciate that, thanks so much." He was being sarcastic, that much she could tell. "Hey, can I call you back later? […] Kay. Love you too. Bye." He grinned, somewhat embarrassed, at her. "Christina says it was nice talking to you, and that I slept with a nightlight until I was twelve." Beca laughed. "Which is a lie, by the way. I was eleven! And three-quarters." She laughed again, and his grin went wider.

Anyway, it was really non-event. Beca ignored Amy's (okay, everybody's) looks.

"Uh, yeah. That was me."

They stood awkwardly for a moment, not sure what to say to each other.

"Well, I'm going to try this on," Christina said, seeming to notice the weirdness that had settled over their encounter. She walked over to a nearby dressing room. "It was nice to meet you guys." She turned to Beca for a moment, as though she was going to say something else, but the younger girl just looked her up and down for a second and said, "Cute…dress?" before shutting the door behind her.

Beca went red in embarrassment. Jesse's sister just saw her with no pants on. On top of that, the Bellas were now looking at her with an intense amount of interest.

"You picked up his phone?" Amy asked.

"That's so intimate!" Chloe marveled.

"Were you guys hooking up when she called?" Stacie remarked.

Beca probably should have responded in some human way, but instead she made a strangled sounding noise and closed herself into her dressing room, pulling off the monstrous "dress" and putting on her normal clothes.

She heard Chloe unsubtly tell the girls to scatter, and she heard a few doors around her own close around her.

Well, this wasn't awkward _at all_.

* * *

Jesse was surprised when Christina came fast-walking out of the dressing rooms, throwing a look over her shoulder to see if anyone saw. "That was quick."

"What?" She realized she was still holding some clothes. "Oh, I haven't even tried this on yet."

"But…that's the opposite of what you were supposed to do." Jesse wondered briefly if he was destined to be stuck in this hipster-girl hell forever just because his sister was easily distracted.

"Shut up. That's so not important right now." Christina looked around again. Seeming satisfied that no one had come out of the dressing rooms, she leaned in to whisper excitedly to him. "_Beca_ is here."

"What Beca? My…" he trailed off as he saw Christina's eyebrows shoot straight up. "My _friend_ Beca?"

"Nice save," she said, rolling her eyes. "Yes, _your _Beca."

"That does not sound at all plausible." Beca, in a store where there is no plaid and every shoe has a heel? What a hilarious, completely impossible thought.

"I recognized her from that picture of the two of you." Jesse would deny to the end of the earth that there is a picture of the pair of them, very drunk, from a party a couple of months ago stuck to his wall at home, placed there over Christmas break when he had an actual reason to miss her. "Plus she's with a bunch of other a capella girls."

That made more sense. The Bellas were perfectly liable to take Beca on a shopping trip. Although if Aubrey is in there, Jesse should probably make himself scarce. Aubrey wasn't really a fan of his _friendship_ with Beca, and he honestly had no idea why the older girl even gave a shit.

"Anyway, you need to not be standing here like a weirdo when they come out. Go look around or something," Christina said.

Jesse threw her a disbelieving look. "At what? Tube tops and booty shorts?!"

"They have clothes for men. Go pretend like you're metrosexual enough to be here. That way she'll come to you."

Jesse thought about how it was more likely that Beca would just flee the place instead of letting him see her doing anything girly, but he gave in to his sister's shoves.

Christina turned out to be right though.

"You seem way too interested in these sparkly ombré man sweaters."

His heart leaped in his chest at the sound of her voice. Or some equally romantic bullshit. In any case, he turned around smiling. "'Sup weirdo."

"Apparently shopping is a female bonding ritual. I had _no idea_."

"I assume the Bellas chloroformed you to get you here?"

"It was a horse tranquilizer, actually. But, you know, same idea."

"Find anything?" he asked, replacing his actual interest with faux interest.

"Chloe tried. Chloe failed." Beca looked vaguely annoyed at the memory. She changed the subject. "I saw your sister."

"Yeah, she's really the reason I'm here. Not the man sweaters."

"She seems sweet."

"She's not. In fact, she might be the devil."

"And what are you supposed to be, an angel?"

"I prefer 'god among men.'"

She tries not to smile and fails, as per usual.

And of course, at that moment, smiling at him, Chloe pounces, bringing the Bellas as reluctant back-up.

"Hey Jesse!" She sparkled.

"Hello Chloe, Bellas," he nodded at him, placing a tight lid over the strangeness he felt because of her smile.

"Jesse, don't you think Beca should buy this," Chloe asked, faux-innocently, holding up the off-pink monstrosity. Instead of letting him reply, Beca took the thing and held it up against her.

"Look at this, she thinks this is a _dress_."

Jesse avoided looking too long at the place where the shirt/dress/whatever met her jeans. His eyebrows knit. "For a doll?"

"When Beca tried it on, I mean," Stacie added, "it was hot, but it was scary."

"Yeah, like you forget underwear once and a gnome could just hop right up there!" Amy remarked.

Beca turned to her in terror. "That's not a thing! Is it?" She thrust the top back at the ginger. "Gnomes, Chloe! In my _business_!"

Chloe rolled her eyes. "You're getting it."

The scary look in her eyes told Beca that she wasn't getting out of this. Beca snatched the top back begrudgingly. Jesse stifled a laugh at her pout.

"Now girls, say goodbye to Jesse," Chloe said, sounding way too much like a mom for Beca's comfort.

"Bye, Jesse," the girls chorused, one voice in particular sounding somewhat dejected.

Beca gave him a look, lips pursed and eyes unreadable, and shrugged at some unasked question as Chloe led her away towards the registers. He watched her go for a moment before Christina sidled up to him.

"Oh, are you done?" he asked her, hoping the answer was yes.

"Huh? Oh, Christ, Jesse, I wasn't trying stuff on. I was hiding behind that rack watching you the whole time!"

"What the hell is wrong with you," Jesse said, more of a statement than a question.

"When are you going to date her?"

_As soon as she lets me._

"Listen," he said, "Either you finish up in the next ten minutes or I'll send you back to mom and dad without doing any of the college visit-y stuff you were supposed to do!"

Christina rolled her eyes, and started to back away from him towards the fitting rooms once more. "First, they'll blame you for that, not me; and two, just ask her out, doofus, she clearly likes you."

And with that she turned and strutted away.

_Know-it-all._

But honesty, nothing was clear to Jesse about what Beca Mitchell thought of him.

But he certainly intended on finding out.

* * *

A/N: Just thought I'd say no disrespect to Forever 21 or anything. I shop there frequently. I just needed a backdrop for Beca's distaste.

Thanks for reading!


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